Netflix vs. Cable TV: Will Netflix eventually beat Cable at its own game? We are here to find out.

Media Convergence

Well, the answer we have all been waiting for – so does Netflix or Television win?

Before we get to that… lets discuss why we even have to ask that question. It is all due to media convergence. Media convergence is basically the merging of all of the mass communications: print, television, radio, Internet. All of these have led us to the point that we now have two great, advanced, technological sources for entertainment.

Around 80 years ago, no one had the option to even choose between two great mediums like Cable and Netflix. For entertainment, people would have to read books or play games, roam with dinosaurs (ha!) etc. We are now in the age of transformation. According to the book “Journalism Next” by Mark Briggs, all businesses will be forever changing because of the technological pace we are experiencing. He says about media “There is no magical switch that will move us all from one model to another” (2). I think this quote can be directly applied to the topic at hand. Netflix didn’t come about and immediately “turn off” Cable. But slowly, espet-rexcially around the year 2014, Netflix started taking some viewers from Cable, not all at once but as Netflix stepped up its game.

So, the winner is…………………………………us. As viewers and consumers, I believe that we are all the true winners for being able to have two constant entertainment sources to pick between. But in all honesty, we don’t think Cable TV is going anywhere. We do believe it will and certainly has lost viewers along the way because of the accessibility and quality of Netflix, but it has dedicated users & will be a part of our digital age for a long time. Netflix and Cable have both established themselves in this fast-paced digital world we live in, and until we start finding better ways to spend our time than sit in front of a screen for hours, they will be here. – Syd & Adam

Television syndication, in a nutshell, is a channel or network selling another network or channel the rights to broadcast the show on their own channel or network. So, for example, syndication took place when Netflix bought the rights to show “How I Met Your Mother” as part of their streaming service.

As much money as Netflix has, and how powerful they are in the entertainment industry, it should be no problem for them to pick up the most popular shows…right?

Well, it isn’t as easy as people think. There are several issues that keep Netflix from getting the shows that are so valuable to other networks. For example, many channels will ask for an extremely large sum of money to syndicate their show, such as the TV show “Sense8” would allegedly cost Netfliix around $9 million per episode. Netflix has to decide whether or not they want to invest that type of money into one show.

Another key issue is the competition is growing, and growing fast. Other streaming sites like Amazon and Hulu make Netflix’s time getting shows much harder, because lots of networks will ask for more money in order to get the exclusive rights to syndicate a show. Also, Hulu is owned by Disney, Fox, and Comcast, which in turn gives Hulu solo rights to many of their shows.

Netflix has attempted to battle this issue by creating their own original shows, and they have had lots of success. Well-renowned shows like “Stranger Things” “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” have given Netflix large amount of fans and followers.

Although Netflix has also had a few original shows that have been less than stellar, it appears that they are not afraid to take chances and make shows that could help them grow in terms of fan support, which in turn generates more money. If they can’t get the popular shows, they will create their own. – Adam

As this battle rages on, and you try to pick a side of the battle to support, let’s look at the pros and cons of each service.

Cable Television Pros:

Live Television/Sports:

The biggest factor that gives cable any chance of survival is its presentation of live events, such as sporting events, live news, and live events such as New Year’s Eve Celebrations, competition finales and many more. Many of the events are available solely on cable, and even for the rare exceptions of being allowed to stream the events online, you still need a cable subscription to be able to view it. A lot of the events, such as sports, are shown on a delay, meaning that the ending may have already happened before you see the ending, making it very difficult to avoid a dreaded spoiler.

More Options:

Even though streaming services like Netflix are constantly adding more and more items to their library on a regular basis, cable television still has much more content available. Thousands of channels full of shows, movies, news, music, and much more is available at the touch of a remote.

Cable Television Cons:

Cost:

Cable is not cheap. Sure, companies offer a deal that may appear to be too good to be true for the first year, but those prices will skyrocket at the beginning of your second year for the two year contract you must sign up for. Also, when you buy and pay for a cable account, you do not get to pick and choose which channels you want or don’t want, so you are forced to pay for channels you may never watch.

Streaming Service Pros:

Ultimate Control:

You decide what to watch, when to watch it, and how much you want to watch. Unlike with cable television, which has a set schedule for their programming, you can watch as much of whatever show you want (that is available on the streaming site, of course) whenever you want.

Affordable:

With most services starting out at under $10 a month, it is definitely a much more affordable entertainment outlet compared to cable television. This is a major selling point to the younger audience.

Streaming Service Cons:

Connection Required:

Even though internet connections are becoming more and more readily available each day, this is becoming less of an issue. That being said, if there ever is an issue with an internet connection, your ability to use streaming services goes out the window… Unless you want to use up all your data.

So after looking at the pros and cons of cable television versus streaming services, it seems pretty clear to me as well as an ever-growing majority of people that streaming services like Netflix are the way of the future, and with some tweaks, could definitely overthrow cable television as we know it.

“Over the past few years, traditional cable companies have seen their overall subscribership drop. Telecommunications research firm MoffettNathanson estimates the loss at roughly 3 percent per quarter from the first quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2014. Meanwhile, Internet streaming continues to expand. CBS and HBO announced new streaming services in October, and DirecTV started offering non-subscribers its NFL Sunday Ticket service over the Internet.”

What does that mean for you? Options. The pricey, one-size-fits-all cable package is history. Viewers will be able to choose from an ever-expanding menu of service on the Internet.” (Jones S. 2014) – Adam

40% of all households with TV use a subscription video-on-demand service like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu Plus, according to Nielsen data.

Cable TV had a 40% decline of ratings in the last half of 2014 – because people are watching more television online

This data shows me that people tend to spend more time watching things online, and I can only assume this is because people are on their phones and computers more. Especially at my age, a 21-year-old college student that has Internet almost anywhere she goes. I don’t carry my Cable TV, but because Netflix has an app and is easily accessible, we tend to lean toward the easier viewing. That is something that we seem to like this day and age – convenience.

So now that we know Netflix is on the rise and Cable TV is on declining, now we can think about why or rather, who is the cause? Before looking up the data, I assumed based on my Twitter poll and followers, that it would be a demographic of ages 15 – 24 that use Netflix the most.

Since Netflix’s start in 1997, its subscribers as of January 19th, 2017 is 93.8 billion

47% of Netflix’s subscribers are from outside of the US

Canada, Mexico, and Brazil are some of Netflix’s most important markets

In the U.S. aged 16-24 year olds are the most prominent Netflix Users (I was so close!)

As for Cable TV, it seems that the crowd of 18-34 year olds has been taken from them. You can see from this graph from Marketing Charts that those 18-34 have been on a gradual decline, while those 35 + seem to still watch TV the same amount as normal. This makes sense with what I know from my day-to-day life. Adam and I both fall in the category that is declining from television, and we don’t have Cable TV anymore; my parents don’t have Netflix and still use TV as their main source of entertainment.

These have been very interesting, and yet somewhat predictable facts for the Teleflix battle. Traditional TV is losing viewers, but also has a consumer base that is loyal in those aged 35+. I’d say this is Netflix: 2 Television: 1. Stay tuned for more! – Syd

Netflix. What a phenomenal advancement in the world of television – and procrastination. Besides the ability to easily watch some of your favorite shows in the click of a keyboard, we don’t know a lot about Netflix. But we want to. As the writers of this blog, we don’t pay for Cable TV anymore because we have “most” of what we want on Netflix. Does this mean that Netflix will eventually take over television? That is one of the questions we intend to find the answer to.

What shows are unavailable to Netflix but have a high viewer rate on television?

What shows are the most popular on each? This could be a reason that Netflix might not take over TV since it doesn’t give us access to view everything.

How does Netflix get access to its shows?

Will TV eventually disappear?

Will Netflix eventually disappear?

Another question we have – because of personal experience, we know that Netflix results in a great number of procrastination around college students in particular – did TV ever result in putting off your studying, homework, or papers? Or does Netflix do that because of how easily accessible it is – on your laptop and phone that you almost always have with you without having to sit in your living room. To find the answers to these question, we are planning to research and compare the viewers of Netflix vs. Cable Television; the costs of the two per year, the viewers each have obtained at the start of their appearance in our culture, and the amount of users each have obtained in the most recent year of 2016 are our areas of research.

What is the cost of Netflix vs. Cable for a full year?

What amount of people viewed Netflix vs. Cable at the start of each of their careers?

Do older generations use Netflix or is it mostly the millennials?

Does media convergence tie into why these mediums exist?

& the biggest question: last year, in 2016, which medium had more users? Why?

Many advancements in television viewing have been made in this century already – Family Video, red box, Hulu, and our favorite: Netflix. In this day and age, we look for the goods or services that are most useful to us, and in turn the outdated services are thrown to the side. We as millennials have seen the rise and fall of Blockbuster, Family Video, red box, DVD’s and other entertainment services that have simply underperformed compared to their successor.

Netflix has already affected our lives – we don’t have to sit in front of a TV at the right time to see a show we want to watch anymore. So we really want to find out how long Netflix will be around and if we will ever have to resort back to Cable television.